Ecological Footprint

It is so easy to sit and wish that everyone lived a nice comfortable middle class life style and had all the creature comforts they could desire. However... what if we all did? Somewhere along the line, we have defined a great deal of happiness and success into a consumer driven lifestyle.

My friend Kathy sent me this quiz... http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp
Take it, it is humbling. I took the quiz again and pretended I was still driving a Honda Civic and was still a vegetarian. It made a significant difference but, was still humbling.

My expedition into Second Life

Well, after two very intriguing sessions on the educational aspects of this tool at the last AECT conference -- I had to give it a shot. What is all of the Second Life buzz about? Is there really an educational use to this? And, most importantly, can I manage a second life on top of my first one?

My first trip included a nice little orientation session in which I learned to walk, fly, and make myself look kinda like myself but much skinner. (The typical setup does not seem to come with pregnancy skins.)

After what appeared to be a relatively successful trip -- it ended there. As soon as I was off of orientation island, I was thrown into a strange place and suddenly, I felt like I had transported to a strange country in which I was unable to navigate. I am still not sure of what I would exactly do in Second Life.

My friend Laura had a great session at the latest CAL conference that was titled "Avatar meets Marian." Maybe I am just not ready to meet my avatar yet.

For now, I will leave you with this you tube video that I think sums it all up beautifully.

Knitting by the Fireside

I just spent the most wonderful Thanksgiving -- knitting by a fireside in a cabin at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. I don't think I could come up with a better way to spend 4 days in the mountains. In fact, I think I may have left my mind up on the mountain.

The NOT so glamorous life of graphis

Graphic Arts -- brings to mind images of fun futsy artistry. A chance to be creative and bring new life to what are otherwise dull visual messages.

Ah, dreams are just that! Akio and I have been fighting with a brochure for days now -- getting it printed. It really is beautiful and to top it off, the whole file apparently is a mess -- according to the place who is to be printing it.

Creation = Good; Logistics = Bad. This still is technology driven -- maybe I should start taking those watercolor classes again.

An update -- somehow, against all odds, our brochure is at the printer. I owe Akio a trip to the Rio to celebrate in about 40 weeks.

Welcome to our CHAOS!

Well, I decided that a blog is a much more efficient way to get information out to friends and family than either a website or emails -- you people keep changing your emails :)

However, this is a double edged sword because, that means I have to keep up on writing in this thing. And writing -- not my fav thing to spend time on.

It really is therefore more of an experiment at this point